Ukrainian President Zelensky promises to allow use of Russian language in Donbas

Tuesday, July 9, 2019 12:00:38 PM

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the residents of the areas that are not under Ukraine's control should be allowed to speak the language they want, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

According to the President, there is no language problem in the country.

"This is the idea of Andrei Bogdan (the Head of the Office of Ukrainian President), but people also discuss that. One day we will stop the war, and I think that we need to allow people in Donetsk to speak the language they want. I don't see any problem here," said Zelensky, commenting on the idea of Bogdan to give two areas of Ukraine a special language status.

Meanwhile, Zelensky is ready to consider the opinion of the Donbas residents on all humanitarian issues.

He stressed that one of the arguments of the information war is the statement that it is illegal to speak Russian in Ukraine. However, he said that he uses both languages.

"If the Donetsk residents have any special request, for example, to fill in the documents in Russian – I don't see a big problem in discussing it," he added.

However, the Ukrainian language will still remain the only official language.

Earlier the Head of the President's Office Andrei Bogdan said in an interview that in case of the return of Luhansk and Donetsk to Ukraine, residents of these regions could use the Russian language officially as a regional language. At the same time, Bogdan clarified that he is not supporting the idea of making Russian the second state language.